Water as a resource is running out.

One in five of the worlds population has no access to clean drinking Water. This startling statistic comes at a time when the rich western world uses water as if it is a rich abundant source to use as much use as they want. The amount of water in the world is limited. The human race, and the other species which share the planet, cannot expect an infinite supply. Water covers about two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, admittedly. But most is too salty for use. Only 2.5% of the world’s water is not salty, and two-thirds of that is locked up in the icecaps and glaciers. Of what is left, about 20% is in remote areas, and much of the rest arrives at the wrong time and place, as monsoons and floods. Humans have available less than 0.08% of all the Earth’s water. Yet over the next two decades our use is estimated to increase by about 40%.

2 March 2009 | Business